Ireland Books

This is the definitive source on the British peerage up to 1938. (Vol. XIV, printed recently and sold separately, updates the saga to the late 1990's.) This 4 to 1 microprint version of the original pages still leaves reasonably legible print; having a reader's magnifier might also be useful for some. The vols are well produced and come in an embossed slipcase, and though sturdy my slipcase was significantly damaged in transit (two front-to-back edges totally broken so that the case would not hold together) with subsequent pleas for amends falling on deaf ears.

This is a reprint, printed in 2000, reducing 4-1 the pages of the orignal 13 volumes into 6 volumes. The orignal was published between 1910 and 1938, so this set does not include information more recent then 1938. Be sure to track down Vol. XIV, published in 1998, to complete the information. Otherwise this is excellent information.

Begun by George E. Cokayne, the Clarenceaux King-of-Arms, this set is to the British peerage what the Oxford English Dictionary is to the English language -- absolutely the best thing of its kind. Citations to primary sources frequently fill 3/4 of the page and anecdotal text-notes put some meat on the bones. Far superior to the 19th century Burke's Peerage publications. Don't attempt serious British research without it! The numerous appendices at the ends of the volumes also are highly recommended as instructive essays.

This is by far the most complete and enjoyable peerage resource, in that it gives the full history of EVERY peerage created up to the 20th century. You cannot get more complete than this. The new edition means that people can actually buy it without going bankrupt and it will be an invaluable resource for genealogists and for people who like to look up old books just for fun as well. Christopher Catherwood, author of CHURCHILL'S FOLLY: HOW WINSTON CHURCHILL CREATED MODERN IRAQ (Carroll and Graf, 2004)

Gerald Wood has written an incredibly inciteful book on this young Irishman who has yet to be fully recognised in his mother country. Mr Wood has guided us through the plays and scripts of McPherson and it becomes very obvious from the moment you read the first few pages that this is an author who has tremendous knowledge of the world McPherson comes from. It came as quite a shock to me to discover that Mr Wood is from the US but his ability to understand the concept of "The Irish Author" is remarkable. I can truthfully recommend this book to all students and professors of Irish theatre. It is a concise and very readable book and does not attempt to suffocate the reader with excessive analytical language. I agree with the above reader regarding "I Went Down." This film is one of the best we have ever seen produced in this country on such a limited budget. Hope to see more from MacPherson and Mr Wood in the near future. Excellent!

I found this book to be an excellent study and introduction to McPherson's work. Mr. Wood's analysis seems to be spot-on to me, and he makes some numerous insightful observations. Indeed, this Liffey Series is very good.

I'll admit that I have always found McPherson's work to be wildly inconsistent. Some of the plays are great (Rum & Vodka), while I always thought that others, particularly The Weir, were overvalued. My favorite is probably the movie I Go Down. This book does a good job of giving an overview of McPherson's work, and has made me better appreciate some of the plays that didn't originally mean much to me. In fact, Wood's book makes me curious about what the future holds for McPherson. I recommend this book highly.

I'm glad to see McPherson's work getting some study, especially in the US. I found this book to be a great introduction to the Irishman's works, and the author, Wood, seems to really know his stuff. Not only that, but the book is really readable. So much scholarship is poorly written, but this book is clear and intelligent without being confusing. For anyone interested in contemporary Irish writers, this book is a must for your bookshelf.

This is an interesting and well written guidebook. It was mentioned on NPR I think once and it was well deserved. Finally a guidebook for active but not agile among us. A must have for any trip to Scotland.

The Creaky Traveler In The North West Highlands Of Scotland by experienced world traveler Warren Rovetch is a personal memoir and engaging travelogue of Britain's coastal wilderness. Penned with insight, charm, and vibrant impressions of culture, natural beauty, and the unique feel of the land itself, The Creaky Traveler is a very highly recommended, expressive, and readable Scottish Highlands guide for vacationers and armchair travelers alike.

Yes this is a travel book with advice on how to get there and what to see, but really it is a book about our nature in seeking the unusual by seeing the common in a new way. It also happens to be just plain good writing-- a joy to read and to savor, like the travels in the wilds of Scotland that the book describes.

THE CREAKY TRAVELER provides an amazing amount of detail (including maps) about a small part of the northwest highlands of Scotland. Mr Rovetch has a friendly and somewhat avuncular writing style which verges on the pedantic at times. He obviously kept a diary of his travels from which this text has been extracted (the minutia could only be recorded not remembered). I found some of the detail annoying for "armchair travel" but useful for objectively planning road travel in remote Scotland. After using it to plan a trip,THE CREAKY TRAVELER is the sort of book one reads a chapter a night on the road to scope out the next day's adventures.

Rovetch and his wife Gerda who prefers the sobriquet "G" are in their late sixties-early seventies and still mobile, though as he says "not agile." Although Rovetch provides helpful hints for "older" folks, younger adventurers may find many of the suggestions useful. I bought the book because I have been seriously contemplating visiting the highlands when I travel to the UK this summer. Rovetch has convinced me road travel is the only way to go, and road travel in northwest Scotland cannot be knocked out in a few days. Also, if you truly hope to "see" anything, high summer is probably not the very best time to go.

Rovetch suggests limiting the miles covered to under 20 per day given the condition of the roads (the path is narrow and the way is hard) and the joy of slowly savoring one of the world's most beautiful rural areas. Rovetch and G made their several week journey in May when the countryside was filled with new lambs and few tourists. The places they stayed were picturesque and relatively pricey. This is a good guide for the practical traveler.

Croatia: Travels In Undiscovered Country by Tony Fabijancic is a superbly written, personal memoir and eye-witness travelogue of what it was like to experience the land and people of Croatia as both an ancestral home and an undiscovered country. Transporting the reader on one man's journey into a rich and varied landscape, Croatia: Travels In Undiscovered Country is a vividly written, deftly informative, and memorably presented experience of a land steeped in centuries of tradition and lore. Croatia: Travels In Undiscovered Country is especially recommended reading for armchair travelogue adventure enthusiasts and anyone thinking of a trip to Croatia for themselves.

A terrific book. I have found no other book on Croatia that offers such insight into the country's current way of life and historical emblems, without becoming trite or resorting solely to political fact listing. Reveals the fragile beauty of a an undiscovered country in the midst of economic and cultural change. A wonderful travel book. Accessible and imaginative writing. Very well done.

I recently returned from three weeks in Croatia and came across this book. I would say Tony's writing is fair to good, and I enjoyed his insights into how the country felt and looked in 1996 post war. Because most of my time was spent along the Dalmatian Coastline his stories have inspired me to spend time on my upcoming return to Croatia in the rurual areas. Speaking Hrvatska is going to help and for anyone contemplating travel to Croatia he does a good job of articulating the lifestyle of 10 years ago. It is changing drmatically now that it is poised to join the EU. His stories are off the beaten tourist path and defininitely reflect the flavor of a very diverse country that remains in denial about its history and its future.

This is an account of its author's travels in what for him was "undiscovered country" but for the reader, save for this book, would be forever undiscoverable. Mr. Fabiancic, a Canadian born in Croatia, fluent in the language and connected with the culture, combines a native's access with a foreigner's perspective; he thus engages deeply on our behalf with places and people that otherwise, if we encountered them at all, would be no more than two-dimensional snapshots, real or remembered.

Indeed, much of what Mr. Fabiancic saw and experienced just ten or so years ago may well already have been swept away by the riptide of progress that has swept over the newly independent nation since the disintegration of the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991. His observations are keen and his descriptions immediate.

Mr. Fabiancic also shares his inner travels with his audience. That aspect of the book is not especially to the taste of this reader, for whom Mr. Fabiancic's reports of personal epiphanies and developmental milestones ("My youth is over") get in the way of his descriptions of the often striking landscape and its often colorful and, it seems, always engaging inhabitants. At times, too, his striving for literary effect can be a bit labored: in places the similes are so thickly spread as to obscure the nouns they are meant to illuminate, and more than one perfectly effective account is blunted by a last-minute effort to give it Meaning.

Should such distractions tempt you to put the book down, don't. If you find a chapter heavy going, try another; they vary in style, as in subject matter, and little is lost by reading them out of order. Later, returning to a passage that had seemed a little overblown, you may experience it more sympathetically. Especially if you have in mind to visit Croatia, the author's vivid insight into what the country and its people are and have been will make coping with the book's less successful qualities more than worth your while.

"The Curtain Rises" is an unusually fine report of individual lives under Soviet communism in Eastern Europe; how thoughtful resisters coped in their daily lives, and were enabled to participate in and shape the basic changes that occurred in their own lives, their communities and countries as they were freed from the constraints of oppressive government control. This book is filled with the life stories and philosophies of extraordinary individuals whose lives were changed by contacts with caring and experienced Westerners who helped them realize their dreams for change and decency.
Susan Shapiro got involved in change behind The Iron Curtain through her concern for the health and eating habits of a Hungarian boy who stayed in her home in Harrisburg, PA. Her concern led her to teach 500,000 teachers and millions of children behind the crumbling curtain not only how to live more healthily, but to change their own lives, their schools, and their communities through grass-roots actions.
This book can be read as fascinating social history of the Soviet Empire or as a blueprint for bringing about basic changes in countries around the world in our time.

I thought that this book was very well-written and extremely interesting. As a dedicated historian with a great interest in the Eastern European region, this book offered a different and unique perspective. It looked into the lives of the individuals, detailing their experiences with communism and the fall of communism. I highly recommend it and think that it would be a great supplement to a history class.

One of the most powerful books I've read in years.
No kidding.
As a professor, this book impressed me by its historical clarity.
And as a humanist, the book touched me for its poignant stories. The people that Susan Shapiro interviews are both ordinary and extraordinary. If you have a belief in the strength of the human spirit, this book will resonate with you. And if you don't, this book can help.

A great read! I highly recommend this book to any person with an interest in Eastern Europe. The writers truly capture the feel of what day-to-day life is really like for people in this fasctinating region of the world.

Mr. O'Clery puts a lot of background information into something most Americans know little about. There is always a lot going on in the background in any diplomatic activity. This is something that Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore missed out on where they should have publicized it more. Mr. Bush, Cheney and McCain - the "you don't talk to your adversaries who are always evil - clique need to read this especially in light of the success of ending the violence in Ireland.

In Ireland, Ulster and Britain, the book was titled "The Greening of the White House" - a much more apt title. That said, it shows how the Clinton administration is committed to shafting Ulster. No fence-sitting here. The US government under Clinton has underwritten pan-Irish national-chauvinist ambitions.

Conor O'Clery knows how to tell a story. Often politics and foreign policy get bogged down in minutae or are blunted by excessive academic language; this is definitely not the case here. The feel when reading Daring Diplomacy is one of being spirited along in back rooms and pubs to see how deals get done and meet those involved. The telling is personal, insightful, and deftly aware of the entangled connections in Irish policy.
If you are reading this as a student, I heartily recommend it. You will find the backstory gives a well-rounded look into some of the reasons why peace in N. Ireland has been so elusive (namely the British government). If you are just reading it for personal reasons, I think you will be quite happy with your choice. A good companion book after this one is George Mitchell's "Making Peace."

Daring Diplomacy was the perfect title for this wonderfully written book. Throughout the course of this book, Conor O'Clery traces the involvement of the Clinton administration in attaining a peaceful settlement to the conflict in Northern Ireland. What is most refreshing about this book is its wholehearted attempt to be honest and balanced--an honor not bestowed on many books written on the conflict in Northern Ireland. From Clinton's commitment during the 1992 presidential election campaign until immediately following the end of the IRA's ceasefire, this book chronicles the efforts of the Clinton Administration to involve all parties in discussions regarding the future status of Northern Ireland. The U.S., at times seeming to threaten the "special relationship" between itself and Britain contributed much to the current political situation in Northern Ireland--one in which we now have Loyalist and Republican ceasefires and a forum for talks on political representation. Daring Diplomacy gives f

A wonderful read. Well-documented and beautifully presented. It realistically evokes a time when honor fueled men to do their perceived duty without hesitation and with great patriotism.

The book via letters and diaries creates a true emotional atmosphere of World War I and those committed to serve. It would make a superb film!

Not to be forgotten the men of L Regiment. Thank you Mr Harris for the insight to a time before I was born and frankly of a different type of men who had so much to give and so much to lose but honor and duty were so important to them all. This was a wonderful book and if you lived as I did in the Hudson River Valley the memories of all of this are so important to me.

Being a native New Yorker and a lover of history I was pulled into this book. With few "unit histories" of the Great War, this one is a must for any serious reader. The unit, made up from the elite of NYC, and men of more humble backgrounds from upper NY, forged a unit while not heralded, most certainly worthy of this book. The story, while never quick moving, will be interesting for the serious reader. The unit saw serious action in breaching the Hindenburg line while attached to the British. Good for the serious student.

This book is well written, well researched and well titled. I devoured it in three sittings. While the First World War has been eclipsed by the Second World War for most Americans, this story captures a fascinating piece of America's earliest military history as a world power. I particularly enjoyed the vivid descriptions which the author used to recreate the past. The arduous conditions the men experienced in South Carolina, where they trained at a partially built national cantonment, are so well drawn it unfolds like a movie. Their surroundings in the U.S. and abroad are brought dramatically to life. The troopship's approach to the French sea coast and entry into Brest harbor, the march through the city and the French countryside complete with the smells of tree blossoms, the troop trains, the billets, etc. were all wonderful. The graphic descriptions of life in the training areas, the reserve areas, marching to the front, entering the trenches, enduring incessant bombardments, making nighttime forays into "No Man's Land" and fighting the big battles was gripping.

The author's diligent research makes this a good read and good history. This reader became convinced that what was known as the Silk Stocking Regiment was far more than spoiled rich boys playing war. When they entered the war they may have been naive, but they rose to the challenges they faced with great courage. Despite suffering terrible casualties they fought valiantly. Their parent unit, the 27th Division, did not fight with the main American forces, the A.E.F., in France. It was assigned to the British Expeditionary Forces (B.E.F.), ultimately under the command of an Australian General, but that did not dampen their fighting spirit.

These soldiers enjoyed broad public support of the people of New York, both upstate farmers ("apple knockers") and New York City socialites, because it blended men from both. The book goes to great length exploring the pedigrees of many of the men of the historic old New York 7th Regiment. It leaves no doubt that many of the men came from the highest class of American society. We are also introduced to some of the "apple knockers". The story proves to be a very interesting social history. The trials, accomplishments and valor left this reviewer feeling very proud of these American soldiers. That feeling of pride is tempered with sadness for the many lives of these fine men which were given so unselfishly.

Excellent portrait of this facinating King. Highly recommended. Buy the paperback though....$28.00 as opposed to $60.00.

The late Charles D. Ross presents here one of the most readable and interesting presentations of of English monarch ever written. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the king or his era-I used it extensively in my senior thesis!

Edward IV is one of the great enigmas of history. Even how he was able to become King is not self-evident. His seizing the throne was then followed by government marked by occasional brilliance and great folly. For someone who at times was keenly aware of dynastic considerations, his own marriage was the height of folly compounded by giving far too much influence to the Queen's relatives. He gave far too much trust, power and wealth to a few individuals, especially the Earl of Warrick and his traitorous brother Clarence alienating in the process much of the established nobility and wrecking in his early years the King's finances. Overthrown in the course of his reign, he nevertheless succeeded in recapturing the throne in short order and then repairing his fortunes spectacularly. Even so, this was accompanied by the strangest series of preparations for invasion of France, ending in an almost farcical procession in Northern France and a pusillanimous retreat. Lazy, debauched, perceptive and effective-many such adjectives can be applied to him - and all miss the puzzling essence of the man and his reign. What a set of stories could be woven out of this material without clearly capturing the essence of the situation! One cannot help wondering why of the adult kings between Richard II and Henry VII, Edward IV alone did not attract Shakespeare's pen.

Charles Ross wrote a fascinating book on this puzzling ruler, making as clear as the scanty and somewhat unreliable records allow the course of Edward's life and reign, and the various episodes that both fascinate and puzzle. The book (with a short introduction by R.A. Grifffiths rather than a revision by him) proceeds first by laying out the story, and then returning to give separate investigation of various aspects of Edward's rule, such as governance, his relations with the community and his finances. This latter subject is particularly well handled, as is the penultimate chapter on law and order. The story is well told, without excessive pedantry and without any attempt to hide when the record is unclear or the author has had to make large interpretations. One may not really know or understand Edward by the end of the book, but one's feeling is that it is the man himself who escapes capture by the biographer's art, not any weakness of the biographer himself. For those interested in such matters - and this is not light reading - Griffith's biography should prove highly satisfying.

Charles Ross presents an unforgettable tale of the most confusing, uneven and adventurous reign of any king in the English history. Edward IV remains the only king who was able to loose a kingdom and them successfully reclaim the crown. Possessing remarkable talents in administration and warfare, he however managed to bring the treasury to almost complete ruin by the end of his term, and botch the most impressive show of force in France any English king (including Edward III and Henry V) can ever master to assemble. Edward IV lived in the extraordinary age, full with great personalities like Richard Warwick the "Kingmaker", Margaret, the queen of Henry VI, and his own kid brother Richard, future most vilified by Shakespeare king Richard the III.

It is very easy to fell victim to novelized history when relating the events as extraordinary as the events of Edward's reign. Not Charles Ross. He is extremely well researched and versed in the records of the period, and presents the somewhat dry details of the records of the Household and Exchequer, in an interesting way and extremely well cross-referenced. Internal English sources are corroborated by continental and papal records. I would recommend this book to a serious student of history.

Also see Charles Ross's "Richard III" for a mysterious, bloody, and tragically brief concluding reign of Plantagenet dynasty. This one is also highly recommended.

I laughed out loud or got misty-eyed (sometimes simultaneously) at the photos and captions in this book. The photographer has captured the essence of doggy expression. One of my favorites (and there are many) is the tilted head and "I'm listening" look of the dog for whom it is wished, "May you always understand what is being said to you." This book is a lovely gift for yourself or any dog people you know.

I laughed out loud or got misty-eyed (sometimes simultaneously) at the photos and captions in this book. The photographer has captured the essence of doggy expression. One of my favorites (and there are many) is the tilted head and "I'm listening" look of the dog for whom it is wished, "May you always understand what is being said to you." This book is a lovely gift for yourself or any dog people you know.

I laughed out loud or got misty-eyed (sometimes simultaneously) at the photos and captions in this book. The photographer has captured the essence of doggy expression. One of my favorites (and there are many) is the tilted head and "I'm listening" look of the dog for whom it is wished, "May you always understand what is being said to you." This book is a lovely gift for yourself or any dog people you know.

I have seen this book and being a dog lover, I really enjoyed it. Some of the captions for the pictures made me laugh out loud. I saw an interview with the authors and the said that The dog we call an Irish Setter her in the US, is called a Red Setter in Ireland. The Pictures are great and the captions are even better.

In late 1993, right before the new year, Toni Dorado is returning home to Los Angeles to face the lover she left abruptly and to reconnect with her family. Her niece and her mother are very excited to have her back, but her sister Sylvia isn't happy at all, and she has her own problems in the form of an abusive husband. Toni struggles to make amends with Pat, her former lover, and the two slowly begin to communicate about where to go from here. As the various women's lives and sometimes volatile relationships collide, so too does the earth as a major earthquake hits the area in January 1994, forcing the women to face some naked truths about each other and about themselves. Even though the earthquake has a deus ex machina feel (where it solves problems so the characters don't have to), "Faults" is quite a remarkable novel for creating a beautiful portrait of a present-day Chicana family to which everyone can relate.

This book is excellent and readers of Ms. De La Pena's previous books will be reunited with some familiar characters. It's also a fascinating read for LA fans and fans of lesbian literature. It's the kind of novel you wish wouldn't end but when it does you know she'll be back with an even greater read next time! I think Terri De La Pena really captures what it's like to be a lesbian and a Mexican-American!

"Faults", (a book that has very few)-- is certainly a wonderful read! I've had the great pleasure of reading De La Pena's earlier books, and throughout each, the author exhibits a delightful writing style and a penchant for giving the reader a marvelous insight into some aspects of the trials, tribulations and ultimate triumphs of some Latino families. In this particular book, you are drawn into the day-to-day relationships between Toni, her family and her close friends, and you are kept interested, long after you have turned the last page. I recommend this book highly, in spite of the use of many Spanish phrases, which might require the use of a Spanish/English dictionary if you don't have at least a rudimentary understanding of the Spanish language.

Other reviewers have outlined the plot of this novel adequately, but more needs to be said about the deft characterizations, setting, and style.

The five primary characters in Faults have each been given a distinct voice. The novel is structured through short chapters, each in the first-person voice of five very different women. Terri de la Pena has created characteristic idioms, world-views, personalities, and character strenghts and 'faults' for each person. I was fascinated as these characters unfolded; it is a risky and, in Terri's hands, successful narrative technique.

Two reviewers complained about the mix of Spanish words and phrases in the narratives, a perspective I would like to counter. My Spanish understanding is based on a couple of semesters 20 years ago, and although I didn't understand the litteral meaning of every Spanish phrase, I found the use of Spanish absolutely authentic to the characters, and actually pretty easy to decode. In fact, there is often a translation of sorts in the context, many are English cognates, and others are common Spanish heard in the US. So don't let it put you off. Even when you don't understand the phrase, the intent and mood is clear. Actually, the use of Spanish adds a great deal to the novel--how much Spanish crops up in a character's thoughts, for instance, provides insight to her personal culture. Also, the presence of Spanish is important to the sense of living as Chicanas in an Anglo macroculture. Bilingualism (and not every Chicano/a speaks Spanish) must be an enormous, perhaps a defining part of the experience. For a non-Spanish speaker of another culture to criticize what is clearly a deeply imbedded cultural characteristic shows a regretable bias, and listening to it would limit one's aesthetic. Finally, I want to say that for Chicanas and others with Spanish-based cultures, the language mix must be quite welcome. (Terri de la Pena is not the only Chicana author writing in this manner, of course.)

I appreciate the attention Terri de la Pena pays to environment in her settings--from street and business names to architectural details. Though briefly mentioned, these things add to the authentic ring of the story.

One other strength of the structure created by the five woman characters is the way time unfolds as the characters speak. Each short narrative takes place within a given moment or brief period of time; in fact, each section is dated so we have a sense of events defining a period of several weeks. What we know about the past is colored by the POV of the speaker, so the contrasting views give us various "truths" that we must sort out as we perceive the biases of each woman.

I have focused on three aspects of Terri de la Pena's writing that contribute to the strength of "Faults." The sum is, of course, much more than the parts. The book is an important addition to lesbian literature which offers a reading experience rich on many levels. I recommend it.